Whisper survived a terrible year to grow bigger than ever

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Idle Chatter

Almost exactly a year ago, The Guardianpublished a scathing expose of the anonymous social platform, alleging that Whisper tracked users – contrary to its user agreement – among other violations of privacy.

It took nearly five months for the UK pub to retract the bulk of its allegations and also remove an opinion piece critical of the platform.

“If anything, the experience just made everybody stronger,” Aishwarya Iyer, Head of Communications told us. “Michael [Heyward], our CEO and founder, said ‘I know they’re wrong, and one day I know they’re going to state that they’re wrong…’ And that’s exactly how it played out, so we obviously felt very vindicated.”

Indeed it would appear that Whisper has emerged from its annus horribilis bigger than ever – the platform currently boasts 10 million monthly average users from 150 countries. And in April, the platform’s biggest competitor in the space, Secret, shuttered.

A team of 100, Whisper’s predominance among Generation Z (yes, it’s a thing) is unquestionable, and the team has recently inked partnership deals with companies like Coca-Cola and 20th Century Fox.